


Rhapsody

by JoAsakura



Series: a tale in three parts (with an epilogue) [3]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Angst, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-24
Updated: 2012-03-24
Packaged: 2017-11-02 10:52:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/368195
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoAsakura/pseuds/JoAsakura
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Everything comes to an end.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rhapsody

Rhapsody

Shepard didn't have any memory from the first time he died. Before Cerberus rebuilt him out of vat-grown flesh and nanocrafted polymers and bleeding edge biotic implants. His helmet had kept his head in once piece, but the massive trauma and lack of oxygen had slash and burned it's way through his frontal lobes.

He suspected, though, that it hadn't been as peaceful as this. 

Admiral Anderson, his friend. His mentor. David, had breathed his last several moments ago, unmoving hand still resting against Shepard's in a final gesture of comfort. He looked over at the dead man, his dark eyes fixed on the scene spread out before them. The blue globe of the earth dotted with burning spots of orange - it was actually kind of pretty, Shepard found himself thinking. (Best seats in the house)

As long as he didn't move, nothing really hurt. But every tiny breath reminded him of the burnt flesh stuck to the remains of his undersuit, the shattered bones stabbing into his punctured lung. That did sort of ruin the whole peaceful thing. He closed his eyes, and for once, the ghosts who haunted his dreams were silent.

(oh, that's right.) He thought absently. (I should...)

"EDI.. " he wheezed. "EDI, if you can still hear me.." Shepard took his hand away from his side, fingers smeared in bright red blood and half-set medigel. His armour's microframe had been irrevocably damaged when the Reaper's cannonfire had burned away the outer plates. None of the emergency medical procedures were working correctly, so the medi-gel dribbled from the undersuit ports, pooling with his blood on the smooth floor.

It glittered like cherry ice. (his first shore leave, a few credits in his wallet, eating something resembling an italian ice for the first time in his life while the vendor smiled at him. Brown eyes like Kaidan's. Cortez's smile. The sun was warm that day and someone was singing. )

It was several minutes before he remembered to keep talking. "EDI.. I don't think i'm gonna make it back." He coughed, blood hot on his chin. "EDI.. tell Kaidan. tell steve.. I.."

"..pard?" A voice crackled in his ear. "Commander Shepard?"

It wasn't EDI. It wasn't anyone he wanted to talk to right now.

"Hackett." He coughed again. "Sir."

"Shepard... crucible.. it isn't firing." Hackett said through a hail of static. "You need to see what's going on.. your end.."

(No, no no FUCK you no Hackett you superannuated freeze-dried varren-fucking ghoul just let me sleep) the angry little red VI on his shoulder ranted.

But Shepard was already dragging himself forward. There was no strength left in his legs but agonisingly, he inched towards the console. His vision was greying, and it was so hard to focus. "Sir.. I .. I can't see.." He swallowed his own blood, gagging on the thick gobbet. "I can't.."

"What are you trying to do?" Another voice, a child's voice. Shepard's bloody hand slid against the console as he dragged himself to lean on it. "What are you trying to do, Commander Shepard?"

"Who.. who're you?" He forced himself to focus on the ghostly child crouching at his side, staring at him.

"The catalyst." The child said. There was singing, echoing deep behind it's words.

"But the.. but the citadel..." Shepard shook his head. The singing was so sad, and he tried desperately to listen to it, but there was this hum.

Humming, humming over the song.

"I *am* the citadel." The catalyst continued. It spoke of the Reapers, of synthetics and organics and the necessary harvest to continue life. "..and you are the first little organic to come so far as to talk to me."

Shepard splayed his bloodied fingers over the console's base. It was prothean, he knew without looking at it, the metal strangely warm against his cheek. He could feel the data in it, like the beacons, but that wasn't where the singing was coming from. 

"Commander Shepard, are you listening? I'm offering you a way to end this. The harvesting of organics can only end if a synthesis occurs." The child said soothingly, staring through Shepard with milky, distant eyes. "If you use the crucible to destroy the reapers, it will destroy all synthetic life... your EDI, those Geth you saved.. even you are part synthetic, commander." 

"Back up. You.. you said i was the only organic to come this far..." Shepard pressed against the console, the prothean data comforting. "But..."

"This toy was left by the bugs. They killed each other not long afterwards. They were surprisingly weak." The child shook his head impatiently. "And the crucible awaited yet another cycle to complete. And as I told you..."

"Shut up for a second." Shepard frowned and the Catalyst made an affronted noise. He ignored it and listened to the data leaking from the prothean console. It was saying something he needed to hear, something about the singing.

It only took moments for the data to dump into his brain. Some of it he already knew. Most of it - but one small thing, shining amidst it all. Shepard turned it over in his foggy brain. The ghosts were whispering his name and there was the humming and all he wanted to hear was the singing.

But this. He blinked at the Catalyst. "You. You killed your own people. You made the first Reaper."

"I was created to improve them, to protect them from the synthetics. To create a new life. And it worked so well. We nurtured our crops throughout the cycles, then harvested them when ripe. New organic life flourished and more of my children were born. This galaxy is my garden."

"You took away everyone's future." Shepard clapped his hands over his ears to drown out the sound in his head.

"It was a system that worked so well. But perhaps you've shown that we need to try something different now..." The child-face smiled. The humming nearly drowned out it's little speech. "To become one, it's the fate of all of you.. I need to create new seeds." 

"You made them...and you control them." Shepard wiped his face, blood and medi-gel and cold sweat streaking across his skin. "You ind..indoctrinated your own people.. and forced them.. that's what the prothean team found out.." 

The singing. The reapers were singing their pain under they Citadel's commands.

"Before I turned them on each other, yes." The Catalyst poked a translucent finger at Shepard. "Why are you still fighting me? You're only one human. One little organic. What can you do, broken and alone, commander? I can make it so you won't be, any longer."

"I am... organic.. and synthetic." Shepard gritted his teeth. He heard the ghosts in his head. Mordin. Miranda. Tali. Eve. Liara. Garrus. Wrex. Javik. James. Legion. Dead or alive, they weren't haunting him.

They were encouraging him. Giving him their strength.

"I am.. human.. and I am prothean." He felt Kaidan's hand in his. Cortez's in his other. Giving him support to stand on shaking legs. "And I am not alone, you piece of shit. I am never alone."

The Catalyst's face twisted with rage as Shepard tapped out that last precious bit of data his predecessors had left for him. The Crucible would send the signal out, through every relay, every system.

"If you do that, you will destroy the mass relays and every system attached to them!" It roared at him, a twisted chorus shrieking from a child's mouth. "You'll destroy me!"

"Good." Shepard said, even as he imagined it was the both the little red and blue VI's on his cartoon shoulder saying it.

The last keystroke fell as the Catalyst vented the atmosphere from the chamber with a howl.

~~

Someone was singing as the vendor handed him a shaved ice. It was so cold, Shepard thought his fingers would freeze off.

[Shepard. Wake up.]

The sun glittered on the water.

[Shepard.]

(Who are you?)

[We were the Arthenn]

[We were the Inusannon]

[We were the protheans]

So many names, so many forgotten names echoing in his head, and he was so cold. And tired. When did he get so tired?

[Thank you.] They said. 

(you're welcome.) he thought dumbly. nothing hurt anymore, and he wondered if this is what it was like when he died the first time. (Are you going?)

[The pain is gone, but the scars remain. There are a billion billion galaxies beyond this one. We will find our own garden to heal in and let this one grow into whatever it will.] They said. [Shepard.]

(what?) 

~~

"wake up." 

He couldn't see. His skin burned like fire and ice. And the words wouldn't come out of his throat. But he knew that voice, even through a pressure helmet.

(Kaidan)

He tried to make his lips move.

"I told you I could get him." 

(Steve) 

He couldn't see, but he could feel their hands gently touch his own.

"Welcome home, Shepard."


End file.
